It’s a big week for me. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the completion of various approval processes so I could make my big announcement. Barnes & Noble came through last night, so here it is: the e-book release of my first novel, Fly Up into the Night Air, is now available for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Apple and other distributors are on the way. (I’ll post links when they’re available.) The novel falls roughly into the fantasy genre, although it contains elements of romance and even courtroom drama as well. All together, it’s pretty lighthearted. I certainly had fun writing it. It’s the first in a series I’m calling Canny Tales. There’s a full description on my Publications page.
My decision to go the indie route and publish the work myself, in e-book form, comes out of my concerns about legacy publishers and the way they are currently marketing e-books. To my mind, rapidly growing e-books sales, the popularity of e-readers such as the Kindle and Nook, sales of smartphones and tablet computers (which make great reading devices), all provide a clear indication of the what the future holds. E-books are going to become the primary format for popular fiction. Moreover, it’s going to happen faster than most people think. Marketing folks with access to sales figures from Barnes & Noble are predicting that the book store will sell more e-books than paper books in 2013. That’s only a year and a quarter away. Yet most of the big six publishers are still treating e-books like a pesky inconvenience they’d like to make go away. Their pricing models encourage print sales at the expense of e-book sales. I’ll admit, I also find the prospect of keeping around 70 percent of the purchase price much more appealing than keeping about 17 percent, assuming I could find an agent and publisher willing to work with me (as calculated by Barry Eiser and Joe Konrath). Which brings me to my last point: I work. Full time. In addition, I try to write every night. I find the prospect of writing query letters, synopses, and marketing blurbs for agents and editors a whole lot less fun than writing novels. If I’m going to have to market my books, I’d rather use social media such as this blog to communicate directly with my readers. Time–and my sales figures–will tell whether I have chosen appropriately where to spend my time.
Here’s hoping you’ll enjoy reading Fly Up into the Night Air as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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It’s available for pre-order now, in e-book or paperback form, and will be in stock on January 20.
Book II 